Yeti Racing Expands Enduro Roster, Pulls out of World Cup DH Racing

Racing creates and inspires fans, pushes the profile of a sport, and is the impetus for many of the innovations we now take for granted today. While the World Cup DH scene has brought wide spread media attention to the sport of mountain biking via the antics of legendary athletes like Shaun Palmer and more, recently it’s Enduro racing that’s captured riders hearts and dollars.

In that discipline today, there is only one guy who could fill the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man Alive shoes, and that is Jared Graves. The Yeti rider may not have won the inaugural Enduro World Cup Series last year, but he put on a damn good show, then took the same bike and picked up a podium at the World Cup DH Championship – just because. In doing so, he earned himself a legion of new fans and brought Yeti’s Super Bike platform lots of positive attention. So while it’s a touch sad, it should come as no surprise that Yeti is pulling out of World Cup Downhill racing for the moment, to throw it’s full support behind its team of incredibly talented Enduro racers.

Drop past the break to learn more…

(20 January 2014, Golden, Colorado) For the 2014 racing season, Yeti Cycles will focus their international race efforts solely on the Enduro World Series with a fully supported team that includes 2013 EWS 2nd Junior DH World Champion Richie Rude. In addition to the EWS World Cup team, Yeti will support a number of select athletes via their US National team and regional Racing Ambassadors who will race primarily in the Big Mountain Enduro Series, Oregon Enduro Series, and select EWS events.

“Racing has been the cornerstone of our product development for over twenty-five years,” said Yeti President and co-owner Chris Conroy. “We are excited about enduro racing and have athletes that are uniquely suited to the discipline. Focusing on enduro racing will allow us to concentrate our marketing and product resources exactly where enthusiasm is growing from our sponsors, supporters, and customers.”

Yeti Cycles Enduro Team

EWS World Cup Team:

• Jared Graves

• Richie Rude

US National Team:

• Mike West

• Chris Heath

Racing Ambassadors:

• Joey Schusler

• Nate Hills

• Alex Petidemange

• Sarah Rawley

Reflecting this shift in international race resources, Yeti Cycles will no longer race a World Cup DH schedule. Cam Cole will continue to race a World Cup calendar, but will not be a part of Yeti’s race program. “Cam is a great athlete and we were proud to have him on our team. While it’s sad to see Cam move on, we wish him luck.”

“World Cup DH racing isn’t done for Yeti Cycles, but our focus in the near-term is on enduro racing,” said Conroy. Place Overall and DH World Championship Bronze medalist Jared Graves and 2013

Yeti Cycles is a rider-owned high-end mountain bike company, based in Golden, Colorado that has crafted race-bred and hand-built bicycles since 1985. The company has over twenty-five years of racing experience and focuses its product development on making racers go faster. If you visit our offices at noon, we won’t be there – we’ll be out riding. Visit www.yeticycles.com to learn more.

I’m not hugely surprised by this. Yeti is a relatively small company and needs to make their marketing/sponsorship dollars work really hard. Enduro is becoming huge worldwide because it’s more relevant to a wider body of riders/spectators. That’s life I guess. Yeti have not kept the fact their developing new bikes a secret, so I expect to see Grubby rising a prototype SB75C or SB76 this season.

I understand from a marketing perspective that this make sense as trail/enduro bikes outsell DH bikes, but wasn’t Richie Rude touted as having the skill set to be the next Gwin? Any chance this is just a temporary move for him until he is up to speed with the rest of the pro DH field? Not a knock on enduro at all, but the kid is built like the Hulk and seemed like he was born to race DH.

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